Captain N: The Game Master

WRITTEN BY
CHARLEY SMART
AND
MARK MOORE

The team continued down several empty corridors in Building 2. Even the alarms seemed to be disabled. They came to an elevator.

"Hmm, the basement, second floor, or the roof?" Snake asked.

Kevin noticed that Snake was looking at him. Kevin smiled and responded: "Let's try the second floor."

The group nodded and proceeded into the elevator. Snake pressed a button on the control panel, and they went up to the second floor. As the elevator doors opened, Kevin stepped back slightly.

"What is it?" Lana asked.

Kevin shook his head. "Nah, it's nothing."

As they exited the elevator, Snake had his gun drawn, but he looked around and saw nothing.

"Man, Fox wasn't kidding when he said they cleared out. Normally in a situation like this, I'd suggest that we split up, but I've got a bad feeling about this." Snake commented.

"Anything from your radio yet?" Lana asked.

"Nothing." Snake replied as he opened up a door at the end of a corridor.

There was a desk on one side of the room. Sitting on top of it was a complex electronic mechanism, with a large antenna protuding from it.

"Look! That must be jamming your tranceiver!" Dr. Right exclaimed.

"Dr. Right, can you take care of this?" Lana asked.

"Don't worry, I'll handle it." Snake interrupted.

He walked over to the large electronic device and studied it for a few seconds. He then delivered a powerful side kick to the antenna itself, sending it to the floor, along with about ten-thousand volts worth of sparks.

"No problem." Snake coughed, stuttering. "Mission accomplished." Snake made his way through the thick smoke.

Kevin looked content, until he noticed a small red light on the wall beginning to flash. He quietly nudged Snake's arm, who then looked to where Kevin was pointing.

"An alarm. Man, I hate this part." whispered Snake. "Let's get out of here!"

Exiting the small room, they proceeded hastily through several more, though their search for Dr. Pettrovich was getting nowhere.

Snake opened a door leading to a large room, but it was most definitely not empty.

"I vill take care of you." said two giant soldiers simultaneously.

"The Arnold twins! I guess they had to leave somebody to protect the building." Kevin said.

"Yah, us und ze duck is all zat's left. But now ve is taking care ov you." one of the giants said.

Snake opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a gigantic fist.

The soldier's attack sent Snake colliding with the wall. He made an attempt to get up, then slumped back down.

Kevin drew his Zapper and aimed it towards one of the men. "Now show me how you handle this!"

He fired and scored a direct hit, but it did absolutely no damage whatsoever, even to his armor. The large soldier simply laughed at the attack.

"Huh?" Kevin asked. He prepared to fire again.

The other soldier took a swing at Lana.

Lana screamed as Arnold's attack barely missed her. She tried to back away, but had come up against a wall.

"I finish you!" said the hulk, cracking his knuckles.

Just as Lana was about to be pounded, she yelled "Pause!"

Lana pressed the Pause button on her Power Pad, then quickly got out of the way of Arnold's attack.

The pause wore off. The Arnold twin slammed into a wall and fell to the floor.

The other twin took a swing at Kevin.

Snake now had to share the floor with Kevin.

The other twin got up off the floor, and they both left. The heavy metal door slammed behind the Arnold twins.

"Kevin?" Snake asked.

"Wake up, Kevin!" Lana said.

Kevin slowly began to regain consciousness, but with no real desire to get up.

"Five more minutes, mom..." Kevin mumbled.

"Captain N, snap out of it!" Dr. Right said firmly.

Kevin jumped to his feet. "What? Ow, my head!"

"Yeah, you took a hit back there. Take these." Snake handed some rations to Kevin.

"Your rations? But I - "

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine." Snake assured him.

Kevin ate the rations and immediately seemed to recover. "Man, these things are awful."

Snake laughed. "Yeah. You get used to it."

Kevin slowly began to realize what just happened. "We've got to find Dr. Pettrovich before they activate the Metal Gear! Do we have a card for that door?"

"No, but that never stopped me before." Snake said as he pulled a hand grenade from his pack and tossed it towards the door.

They all hit the floor, and the grenade did its work.

The smoke slowly cleared, and everyone got back on their feet. The door was now all over the floor, revealing a long passageway behind where it used to be. They made their way down it.

"This is not good. One of them said something about a duck." Snake commented when they got near the end of the passageway.

Kevin thought about it. "I can't remember, but I know it's not good."

Snake laughed while opening a door. "Well, of course, but I'm curious about this duck thing. I wonder whaaaaaatt?!" Snake was staring at the other side of the room.

The others looked over to where Snake was staring. A large armor-clad soldier holding several boomerangs was standing in a large room between some crates. To his right, sitting in front of a crate, was an old man, tied up and unable to move.

"Dr. Pettrovich!" Snake yelled.

"I'm surprised you made it this far, Snake." the soldier said. "I'm Coward Duck. You wanna try and shoot me? Go right ahead!"

Snake, Kevin, and Lana all drew and aimed their weapons, but didn't fire for fear that they would miss Coward Duck and hit Dr. Pettrovich.

Coward Duck laughed. "What are you waiting for? It seems like I always have to be the one to break the ice!" He pulled out a boomerang and threw it in their direction.

Snake yelled as the boomerang nearly cleaved his arm. It didn't, but it badly ripped his uniform.

"Whoa!" Kevin dove to miss the razor sharp edge of the flying weapon. He plunged headfirst to the floor.

"Oh, crap!" Lana yelled, joining Kevin on the floor.

Kevin and Lana got up and watched the boomerang sail effortlessly back into Coward Duck's hand.

"This guy could give Cuts Man lessons!" Kevin exclaimed.

"I gotta stop this guy!" Snake said, aiming his Beretta.

He fired a shot towards Coward Duck, but he deflected it with his boomerang. The shot ricocheted all over the room, grazing Lana's shirt, but otherwise causing no other damage. Lana jumped slightly, yelling.

Seeing Lana nearly get shot was too much for Kevin. He activated his Power Pad and came racing towards Coward Duck at breakneck speed. Kevin gladly showed him what a solid wall feels like.

Snake came over and saw Kevin step away from Coward Duck, who was now on the floor mumbling something about "south". Snake immediately started untying Dr. Pettrovich.

"That was a close call, Kevin!" Lana exclaimed as she and Dr. Right rushed towards him.

Snake had more pressing concerns. "It's finished, Dr. Pettrovich! Even worse, they have some kind of teleportation device or something that can open up portals to other worlds!"

"I know, Snake. I saw them testing the tank and that device." Dr. Pettrovich answered.

"Wait, they've operated the warp zone opener?" Dr. Right asked.

"Yes. The commander wanted to test the tank on one of the other...worlds first."

"Megaland!" Kevin, Lana, and Dr. Right yelled simultaneously.

"We've got to stop it now!" Lana shouted.

"Agreed. But I still haven't taken care of the enemy commander!" Snake said.

Dr. Pettrovich remained silent. After a few seconds, he sighed and answered: "It's...it's Commander South."

"Big Boss?!" Snake asked, shocked. "The Big Boss is the leader of - I can't believe - this can't be happening - why?!"

Everyone was taken by surprise. The commander of Fox Hounder, Snake's division, was really the leader of the terrorist regime who built the Metal Gear.

"Power corrupts." replied Dr. Pettrovich.

Snake remained silent for a moment. "Okay, let's go!" he said finally.

The five of them proceeded down the hallway until they found a door leading to the outside. Snake slowly inserted card # 7 into the door and opened it.

They all were shocked by what was happening outside. As they lifted their gaze upwards, they saw the gigantic Metal Gear charging its way into an open warp, surrounded by several enemy officers.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Lana asked Snake.

Snake had a menacing look in his eyes as he stared at the huge machine. He slowly pulled his last hand grenade from his pack and pulled the pin. "Get ready to run." he said as the grenade sailed towards the tank.

The grenade exploded, and the officers quickly fell to the ground, not dead, but just dazed. The Metal Gear was now completely through the warp, which was beginning to close.

"The warp zone opener must be on the tank!" Dr. Right exclaimed.

"Hurry!!!" Lana screamed, as she and the rest of the team sprinted towards the rapidly closing warp.

Kevin went through first, followed by Snake, Lana, Dr. Right, and Dr. Pettrovich.

"We're back in Megaland!" Lana cheered as she observed the familiar surroundings.

"Stop it before it destroys everything!!!" Lana shrieked to Snake and Dr. Pettrovich.

Snake looked at the tank, then at Dr. Pettrovich, then at the tank again. "Uh, weak points, Dr. Pettrovich? I'd really like to hear about its weak points now."

Dr. Pettrovich shook his head. "It has none. There is a minor structural flaw, however, on the lower part of its right launcher, directly above the exhaust port."

Snake looked at his gun. It was out of ammunition. "Kevin, tell me that Zapper of yours has some juice left."

Kevin checked his power level. "Zero. Sorry."

"I've got enough juice to quench it!" Lana said.

The Metal Gear's missile bays had been loaded, and the body was now rotating towards its target. Lana carefully aimed her zapper at the point Dr. Pettrovich had said. She pulled the trigger, and a laser beam came out, hitting the tank.

"It didn't work!" Snake shouted as the Metal Gear prepared to fire.

Everyone held their breath as a gush of smoke came from one of the missile bays. But the smoke was soon replaced with a giant explosion and shower of sparks.

"No, you got its exhaust port, Princess! It's overheating from the inside!" Dr. Right said.

Snake didn't have to be told twice. He took off as fast as he could towards the smoking pilot, who was going pretty fast considering his outfit was partially on fire.

"Gotcha!" Snake exclaimed as he tackled the mystery person to the ground. With a few quick punches, Snake was able to knock out the pilot.

"All right, you got him!" Kevin said as he, Lana, and Doctors Right and Pettrovich made their way over to Snake.

"I'll take this." Dr. Right said as he took the warp zone opener from the pilot.

Snake looked satisfied, until he remembered the walking tank was still behind them. "Wait! What about the Metal Gear? I think we should - "

A gigantic explosion interrupted Snake as the fire in the missile bay caused the entire tank to explode. Pieces of metal and wires landed at his feet.

"Yeah." was all Snake could say as he and the others watched what remained of the Metal Gear burn.

"Well, Snake, I guess your mission was a success!" Lana said.

Snake looked at Lana, then at Dr. Right. "No. I have to go back now."

"But why? You could stay here and help us fight evil!" Kevin jumped in.

"The Metal Gear is destroyed, but there is so much else that I haven't taken care of. Big Boss is a traitor to us all, and I have to stop him before something like this happens again."

Snake picked up the unconscious soldier while Dr. Right inputted coordinates into the warp zone opener.

He opened up a warp in front of Snake.

"It's been a blast." Snake said, laughing.

"Listen, Kevin, some friends, and I have a band." Lana said. "We're gonna play a concert tonight, and we wanna have it in your honor. It would make us so happy if you'd join us." She took the warp zone opener from Dr. Right and held it out to Snake.

Snake grinned and took the opener. "Wouldn't miss it!"

Kevin and Lana grinned.

"Tonight at eight! Megaland concert hall!" Kevin said.

Snake nodded. "I'll be here!"

Snake and Dr. Pettrovich walked into the warp.

That night, thousands gathered to hear Captain N & The Video Game Masters. The N Team and their friends were seated in the front row. Solid Snake was there, as promised.

The band members walked onstage, and the audience cheered.

After Kevin, Lana, Mike, and Stacey had their instruments set up, they turned on their microphones.

"Man, I wish I could tell you guys about the incredible adventure Lana and I had today!" Kevin said with a laugh.

The audience laughed.

"But you guys came for music." Kevin continued. "Our first tune tonight is from the first Metal Gear video game on my world for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It's named after a really cool hero, who we befriended today, and who is sitting amongst you right now - Solid Snake! Let's hear it for the man!"

Snake was surprised as everyone started cheering for him, so he stood up, turned around, and waved at everyone.

Once the cheering and applause had died down, Kevin spoke up again: "Let's do it! 1, 2, 3, 4!"

The band played a great rendition of 'Solid Snake'. When they were done, the audience stood up and cheered wildly.

"Yeah!!!" Snake screamed, holding up the rocket launcher that he just happened to have brought with him. He fired a rocket up at the ceiling.

The audience looked up. The band members looked up. They watched as the rocket hit the ceiling and created a huge hole in it.

A lot of people dove for cover to avoid getting hit by the pieces of falling metal.